Convert PAL to 50fps for smoother playback?

I have created a 30 minute video for a show backdrop. Watchout will be used for the playback so I have pre-split into 3x 1080P clips.

I've heard Pal playback can look shaky/stuttering when played back on watchout. The production company recommened I work in a 50fps comp. Well it's a bit late now!

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for converting, but keeping the same length to make smoother? Would slowing down to 50% with frame blending turned-on, then drop comp into a 50fps comp help?

[Andy Stokes]"I have created a 30 minute video for a show backdrop. Watchout will be used for the playback so I have pre-split into 3x 1080P clips. I've heard Pal playback can look shaky/stuttering when played back on watchout. The production company recommened I work in a 50fps comp. Well it's a bit late now! Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for converting, but keeping the same length to make smoother? Would slowing down to 50% with frame blending turned-on, then drop comp into a 50fps comp help?"

You didn't mention, but should I assume from your terminology that you're working in After Effects?

Nested comps inherit the frame rate of their parent, so you can simply drop a 25 fps comp into a 50 fps comp (no slo-mo and frame blending required), and AE will recalculate at 50 frames per second. AE-generated layers, transformations, and effects will be smoothly recalculated at 50 fps. 25p footage will be frame-doubled, and 25i footage should be interpreted as deinterlaced 50p.

IF there is any stuttering/jerky playback in Watchout, I seriously doubt it is due to PAL per se. If I'm not wrong, Watchout originates from a PAL country!

The cause, other things being equal, may be due to the fact that most, if not all, projectors are made to operate ideally at 60Hz, rather than 50Hz AC frequency regardless of whether it is made to operate in a PAL or NTSC environment. This does not jive with PAL's 25fps, but suits NTSC's 30fps better.

Watchout has (had?) a setting for multiples of 25fps or 30fps as the case may be. The idea, I think, was to match the graphics card's refresh rate to a multiple of the video's frame-rate. However, I never managed to see positive results with any setting here. That was with version WO2 - last I did a program with WO. Might have changed since.

Additonally, try/test a software to force the graphics card's refresh rate to a rate that matches the projectors. There was a one such software popular with Watchout users but I've forgotten its name. It was made in Taiwan, and is similar to this -http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/
orhttp://reclock.free.fr/

[Thomas Leong]"IF there is any stuttering/jerky playback in Watchout, I seriously doubt it is due to PAL per se. If I'm not wrong, Watchout originates from a PAL country!"

Agreed -- there is no Watchout issue at 25 fps that I know of.

My guess on the warning to use 50 fps instead of 25 fps is simply that the lower frame rate shows much more "judder" on fast motion than the higher frame rate would. On wide screens like Watchout is commonly used for, there's a temptation to use big, fast, horizontal motion that doesn't play well at a low frame rate.

It's a pretty common problem that pops up on the AE forum here on the COW: AE users accustomed to working in NTSC find that the same animation techniques that work at 29.97 fps produce unacceptable judder at 23.976 fps.